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Here's a few more photos...
The fingerboard after the Proulx bend, as flat as it was before fretting.

I probably should have come up with some clever jig for this, but I just went ahead and drilled the holes freehand!

Here's the birdseye headplate with the tuners installed.

And the back of the headstock. I nearly went too far south with the tuners.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Nice work! I almost made a tuner mistake on the headstock by leaving the curved area for the volute too close to the tuners so they wouldn't lay flat. Fortunately I did a test fit to check to see if the headstock thickness was correct and caught the other problem - whew.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I shifted the tuners a bit to make room for my "Logo".
I had a few scraps of shell left over from another project, so I cut this out.

Scribed around the shell...

And inlayed it!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I did just that on my challenge mando. I lucked out and was able to put a very slight bend in the tail end of the baseplate to make it fit without affecting the tuners. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Here's my high-tech precision tooling for cutting binding/purfling channels.

That's it, the StewMac bit and bushings and a Dewalt laminate trimmer, no jig!
I really should build a jig, but cutting them freehand is quick and easy. It does require a couple of hours of handwork with a file and scraper to get it ready.

Here's the binding/purfling glued on to the back.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Rodger, I have really enjoyed watching you work on this. I have begun to notice here and in other threads that you and I use very similar processes for most of the operations. The only real difference is you get much nicer results. Don’t worry, I’ll get there; I’m still pretty green.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Thanks, but that's not entirely true. I spent last night taking off about a third of the binding/purfling, some of the purfling slipped off it's ledge during glue-up and was below the level of the top, plus the binding didn't fit because the purfling was in the way. It was glued with Titebond, so it wasn't terrible getting it off, but it remains to be seen how it will look when I'm finished.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I really should remove the binding & purfling and do it over, the glue ups went really poorly. It doesn't fit nearly as good as it did for the dry fit, and when I scrape it flush with the sides the thickness will probably vary radically. I've almost sanded through the binding in one place already.
It will be good enough though, because I ain't doin it over!
The top & back are sanded and preped for final finish, I just have to scrape the binding flush with the sides and seal the pores on the sides with a few coats of shellac. I'll complete filling the pores with my TruOil finish, it only takes 6 or 8 coats to fill the pores if they're adequately sealed. I do at least 12 coats of TruOil, sometimes as many as 30, so filling the pores is not really a separate operation for me.
I've also cut out the soundhole and glued the fingerboard to the neck. Photos to follow...

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Here's gluing the fingerboard to the neck:

And the top with a couple of coats of oil.

I made that bloodwood bridge because the ebony one is 41 grams, and that seemed heavy for this size guitar. The bloodwood bridge turned out to be 41 grams also, but with a little higher pitch in the taptone. I think I'll use the ebony, mostly for appearance.
Here's the back.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Yeah, I think bloodwood is usually even heavier than ebony. Why not rosewood, if you want lower density with darker color? 41 grams does sound quite high to me, especially with the added damping of ebony.

That redwood is gorgeous And the maple fingerboard against it is quite striking. I like the dark inlays on the fingerboard too. Tough competition!

That is an absolutely stunning guitar, IMHO. The woods chosen really make it stand out. Delicious is the right word, as far as I'm concerned. And from the Grellier plans, which I intend to build from soon.
By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a blueprint of your bending rig?
Also, what kind of bulbs and fixtures? That's a really cool solution.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

That is beautiful Rodger. That soundboard....so nice.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks for all the comments. From what you guys have said, I have extreame skill in selecting pretty wood.
Sorry, but no plans for my bender. I made it up as I went along, the base is 1x6s and the fixtures are the cheapest I could get at HD. The bending forms for each shape just slip over the base, I can get more pictures if anybody wants them.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

If you can, I'd appreciate them.
I'm pretty sure I could handle building the forms and base. I'm more interested in what type/wattage the bulbs are, whether the fixtures for them need to be a certain type, and what you used for the steel slat on the form, and how it's attached.
I ask these questions because unlike most guys, I know absolutely nothing about lighting, home electrical wiring, etc. I'm sure it's simple, but I can be kind of thick, lol.
And by the way, my build, when I get around to being able to build it, will be using more standard woods(EIR and Sitka or Engelman), but I hope it turns out half as good as yours. Again, a gorgeous guitar.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I'm out, but here's a few shots of my bender. Let me know if you need any more.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Rodger, that's great. Thanks.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

No progress pics, but I'm still putting oil on. It's got 20+ coats now, as soon as I get one to go on nicely, I'll be done. Well, I'll be done putting on oil. Then another couple of weeks for it to cure enough to buff. Everything else is ready, the bridge is carved and roughly fitted to the top, the nut is slotted & installed, and the neck is ready for final attachment.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

It's finished!
Well, it's got strings on it. I still have to work the saddle down some, the action is a little high, and there's a lot of saddle sticking out of the slot. Final photos soon. Maybe even a video.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Can't wait to see the pictures!!!!

Oh you gotta' post a video; it's in the rules!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Any pictures of the completed guitar?

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Give us a peak, Rodger

Here's a couple of shots as it is now. It's not done, the bridge is lifting in the back and I've decided I don't like the pinless bridge anyway.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I was planning a pinless bridge and I've been wondering about how to stop them lifting. The pinless design certainly seems to put a lot more strain on that joint than when the strings are anchored under the top.


(The guitar looks great by the way, love the three piece back and that top is gorgeous!)

There's nothing wrong with the pinless design I used, I just didn't do a very good job of clamping when I glued it down.
I've glued a pinless bridge on a tipple, (that's the traditional type) which is basicly a uke with 10 steel strings. The bridge is about 4 1/2" x 7/8", which is much less glue area than a guitar bridge. It didn't stay on the first try, but after careful fitting and clamping, it's holding fine.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon